HUD Wants Public Housing Investors

HUD Wants Public Housing Investors.

Politico (7/6, Williams) reports HUD officials are looking to the private sector for help with public housing after a June report "found that the nation's 1.2 million public housing units need more than $25 billion in overdue repairs and major upgrades - a sum that Congress, in a budget-cutting frenzy, is unlikely to approve." HUD Assistant Secretary Sandra Henriquez "said housing authorities under the plan could secure loans or court investors to help HUD 'preserve the public housing stock that has had a 75-year federal investment,'" noting the department is "not keeping pace," with necessary public housing maintenance. Some GOP lawmakers are critical but the plan, which allows agencies "to directly seek private capital for upgrades makes more sense, particularly now that federal dollars are harder to come by, advocates and HUD authorities said."